What are you reading?

[Lemondropkid]

First book by this author, he does seem to have written a few!! Loving it so far, historical fiction set in post WWI USA.

[Siam Addict]

On 7/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, Lemondropkid said:

First book by this author, he does seem to have written a few!! Loving it so far, historical fiction set in post WWI USA.

Reading this book as well, set after WW2. I'm also loving it!

Recently discovered this author and this is the third book of his I have read in the last couple of months. I like the fact he has different types of heros, this one is an ex-con, the other books heros were Secret Service Agent and a Government assassian. As much as I like Lee Childs and Stephen Leather most of their stories are about one hero.

[Siam Addict]

I recently had a conversation at work about paperback books and Kindle, I have always read paperbacks but everyone at work use kindle, they are all in their 30's and 40's and I'm the only one in my late 50's, so is it an age thing? Will paperbacks become extinct in the next 20-30 years?

[forcebwithu]

2 hours ago, Siam Addict said:

I recently had a conversation at work about paperback books and Kindle, I have always read paperbacks but everyone at work use kindle, they are all in their 30's and 40's and I'm the only one in my late 50's, so is it an age thing? Will paperbacks become extinct in the next 20-30 years?

There appears to be a good market for dead tree versions of books, although when I see the prices of some of those books I wonder why people still buy them. I also see plenty of old farts, myself included using Kindles. Just a matter of what you're comfortable with.

[andycoll]

7 hours ago, Siam Addict said:

I recently had a conversation at work about paperback books and Kindle, I have always read paperbacks but everyone at work use kindle, they are all in their 30's and 40's and I'm the only one in my late 50's, so is it an age thing? Will paperbacks become extinct in the next 20-30 years?

For me personally. It is generally the physical book when at home and the Kindle when travelling,

[Lemondropkid]

9 hours ago, Siam Addict said:

I recently had a conversation at work about paperback books and Kindle, I have always read paperbacks but everyone at work use kindle, they are all in their 30's and 40's and I'm the only one in my late 50's, so is it an age thing? Will paperbacks become extinct in the next 20-30 years?

I think Paperbacks have come slightly back into fashion, bit like vinyl. Have not data to back this up just my view🙂

Like you the Kindle is for holiday but I still bring some paperbacks and always buy a few. Have fallen out of love with my Kindle to a large extent at home and gone back to paperbacks.

 

[Lemondropkid]

Have started on this, my first ever  Lee Childs- first novel in the Jack Reacher series.

Am rattling through it, but not sure I really like😳. Something strangely mechanical about the style, felt much more engaged with the characters in the Baldacci book at this stage.

Edited July 18, 2022 by Lemondropkid

[Siam Addict]

8 hours ago, Lemondropkid said:

Have started on this, my first ever  Lee Childs- first novel in the Jack Reacher series.

Am rattling through it, but not sure I really like😳. Something strangely mechanical about the style, felt much more engaged with the characters in the Baldacci book at this stage.

I agree, as much as I like The Jack Reacher novels it was mainly the same storyline Ex MP cop wanders around USA helping the victims of crimeland USA.

Getting Tom Cruise, not the tallest actor out there to play Reacher a character well over 6ft in the movies seems a bit of a mismatch.

[galenkia]

16 hours ago, forcebwithu said:

There appears to be a good market for dead tree versions of books, although when I see the prices of some of those books I wonder why people still buy them. I also see plenty of old farts, myself included using Kindles. Just a matter of what you're comfortable with.

Some of the Kindle versions of new books are the same price as the hardback on Amazon.

Don't know how that works as there is no outlay for a physical product or shipping charges.

[Butch]

3 hours ago, Siam Addict said:

I agree, as much as I like The Jack Reacher novels it was mainly the same storyline Ex MP cop wanders around USA helping the victims of crimeland USA.

Getting Tom Cruise, not the tallest actor out there to play Reacher a character well over 6ft in the movies seems a bit of a mismatch.

I agree, they're easy to read and the plotline is always going to involve Reacher going into a Cafe for coffee and maple pancakes, giving the waitress a large tip, throwing his old clothes in the bin and getting new ones from the hardware store, meeting a female during his investigations who has issues with her former husband or has come to a backwater town to escape a bad experience and he then ends up sleeping with her, going up against a local corrupt politician or company who send their heavies to beat him up but they end up getting beaten as Reacher elbows one in the face, uses his momentum to follow up with an uppercut and then reverse elbows the guy coming from behind, then falling foul of the local police but ending up getting helped out by one of them, gets arrested but let off when the local PD check his Military record with questions as to why a decorated former Major is living like a vagrant from town to town.

Plus maybe a car chase.

[forcebwithu]

8 hours ago, Siam Addict said:

I agree, as much as I like The Jack Reacher novels it was mainly the same storyline Ex MP cop wanders around USA helping the victims of crimeland USA.

Getting Tom Cruise, not the tallest actor out there to play Reacher a character well over 6ft in the movies seems a bit of a mismatch.

I enjoyed the first couple of Reacher books, but as you wrote, the storyline was too repetitive and gave up on the reading his subsequent books.

Much better than the movie Jack Reacher was the series Reacher that was released earlier this year.

[Lemondropkid]

Change of direction for me. Gritty reality after a recent run of crime fiction:

 

Edited July 20, 2022 by Lemondropkid

[Zambo]

Reading on my kindle, just noticed its a TV series - more investigation needed.

[Lemondropkid]

My second Baldacci book, really enjoyed the first one in the series (Aloysius Archer), and there is was just sat on the library shelf- also endorsed by Bill Clinton, not sure if that's a good or a bad thing😛

 

[galenkia]

10 hours ago, Lemondropkid said:

My second Baldacci book, really enjoyed the first one in the series (Aloysius Archer), and there is was just sat on the library shelf- also endorsed by Bill Clinton, not sure if that's a good or a bad thing😛

 

Book 3 came out a couple of months ago, only one of his I ain't read. One of my favourite authors. The King and Maxwell series of books are very good. 

[galenkia]

Picked up my next 3 reads from the library on the way back from work. The Nowhere Man was originally written in 1972 and is about an elderly Brahmin man who befriend an elderly English woman after his wife and son pass away, and about the racism they face. 

[Siam Addict]

11 hours ago, Lemondropkid said:

My second Baldacci book, really enjoyed the first one in the series (Aloysius Archer), and there is was just sat on the library shelf- also endorsed by Bill Clinton, not sure if that's a good or a bad thing😛

 

Just finished One Good Deed and he is quickly becoming a favourite author of mine, I will look out for this one.

There is a second hand book shop near me and I have picked up 7-8 for £1 each from there.

I like a good book when I'm flying it helps to pass the time and I hate take offs and landings so I will hold onto a few of them for my trip in December.

[forcebwithu]

8 hours ago, lazarus said:

Just saw this recommendation for The Book Thief in another topic. Looking forward to more of her recommendations. 

[Zeb]

The Foot Soldiers by Gerald Seymour (Jonas Merrick, Book#2)

 

Defectors are not always welcome.

Is the information they bring worth the cost of protecting them for the rest of their lives? Is it even genuine? Might they be double agents?

These are some of the questions facing MI6 when a Russian agent hands himself in to them in Denmark.

As a team begins to assess his value, his former employers in the Kremlin develop a brutal plan to show that no defector will ever be safe.

And they know where to find him. Which means there must be a mole in MI6.

So it is that the cavaliers of Six find themselves being interrogated by nondescript Jonas Merrick of Five—the man called back from retirement and his beloved caravan, the man the young guns call the Eternal Flame because 'he never goes out'.

But while he may be grey, Jonas is also ruthless. As he quietly works through the suspects in London, and violent mayhem breaks out in Denmark, Jonas plans not just to unmask a traitor, but to hit back at the Russians with deadly force.

First encountered in The Crocodile Hunter, Jonas Merrick is set to become one of the great figures of modern spy fiction.

[Lemondropkid]

Just started on this one, second book in the Night Soldiers series. Highly quality stuff going on the opening pages and the first in the series

Edited August 2, 2022 by Lemondropkid

[lazarus]

One of my old friends is featured in this tale...

The untold history of the underground marijuana trade in Thailand—from surfers and sailors to pirates.

Located on the left bank of the Chao Phya River, Thailand’s capital, Krungthep, known as Bangkok to Westerners and “the City of Angels” to Thais, has been home to smugglers and adventurers since the late eighteenth century. During the 1970s, it became a modern Casablanca to a new generation of treasure seekers, from surfers looking to finance their endless summers to wide-eyed hippie true believers, and lethal marauders left over from the Vietnam War.

Moving a shipment of Thai sticks from northeast Thailand farms to American consumers meant navigating one of the most complex smuggling channels in the history of the drug trade. Many forget that until the mid-1970s, the vast majority of marijuana consumed in the United States was imported, and there was little to no domestic production.

Peter Maguire and Mike Ritter are the first historians to document this underground industry, the only record of its existence rooted in the fading memories of its elusive participants. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with smugglers and law enforcement agents, the authors recount the buy, delivery, voyage home, and product offload. They capture the eccentric personalities of the men and women who transformed the Thai marijuana trade from a GI cottage industry into a professionalized business moving the world's most lucrative commodities, unraveling a rare history from the smugglers’ perspective.

[galenkia]

On 7/25/2022 at 7:18 PM, galenkia said:

Picked up my next 3 reads from the library on the way back from work. The Nowhere Man was originally written in 1972 and is about an elderly Brahmin man who befriend an elderly English woman after his wife and son pass away, and about the racism they face. 

Just finished the Richard Osman book. Brilliant read, read the first in the series as well. Really good light hearted thriller's.

[galenkia]

[lazarus]

In its first thousand years―from the revelations to Muhammad in the seventh century to the great Islamic empires of the sixteenth--Islamic civilization flourished. While Europeans suffered through the Dark Ages, Muslims in such cities as Jerusalem, Damascus, Alexandria, Fez, Tunis, Cairo, and Baghdad made remarkable advances in philosophy, science, medicine, literature, and art. This engrossing and accessible book explores the first millennium of Islamic culture, shattering stereotypes and enlightening readers about the events and achievements that have shaped contemporary Islamic civilization.

[Lemondropkid]

Slightly embarrased to admit I gave up on Alan Furst's the Dark Star, half-way through. Found myself skim reading parts of it, and then as it has a convulted plot, having to go back to understand what on earth had gone on😛

More in the mood for some lighter summer reading. Enjoying this one so far, but wouldn't say it was as good as a Gentleman in Moscow, which was a work of genius.

Very different type of book to that, more of coming of age story of 3 boys who met in juvenile farm(sounds like a US Borstal), told from the various characters viewpoints.